Ambiguous Wording
by MaryMill
Summary: Years after losing his house elf Dobby, Lucius is facing a problem...


Disclaimer: I don't own the HP universe.. But I can play with it :)

In the summer after Harry's fifth year...

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Lucius shifted his weight so it rested on his cane, his gloved hand flexing around the head of the silver serpent.

The entrance of the building he was currently staring at had not been hard to find. No wards surrounded the direct area, although he sensed a strong ward nearby, and truth told he would have been surprised if there had been some sort of magical protection.

'How is it possible Muggles have survived for such a long time' he pondered, his thoughts leading him to Horklumps and Flobberworms. 'Probably their barbaric instincts have kept them alive.'

No, he could not give Muggles all credit. Blood traitors, mud bloods, and half-breeds were an important factor in keeping them amongst the living as well.

Take that oversized caretaker of Hogwards – what was his name again? Something with a G. Git.. Grid.. Ah, Hagrid – for example. He had deemed fit to teach his students the fine 'art' of keeping Flobberworms alive.

A waste of time and space, if you asked him. Survival of the strongest - and purest, he added to his reflection - was something he had always stood for. If humans stopped feeding flobberworms they would simply cease existing. Just like Muggle would be nowhere without the protection of those inane Muggle loving fools.

The blond man tilted his head in thought. The entrance of this plain, unsightly building was an enigma to him. The transparent glass doors had no visible handles, locks, or anything that could possibly open them.

He had even carefully tried to walk straight at the doors, hoping that, against better judgement, the doors would work similar to the wall separating platform Nine and Three-Quarters from the Muggle platforms.

The small amount of magic radiating from the notice-me-not spell he was wearing did not cause any visible disturbance to the electrical circuit Muggles were so fond of using. He was, however not an expert in Muggle mechanisms.

Lucius was hesitant with casting spells directly at the doors to open them. From what he had read he knew Muggles used loud noise to protect buildings from intruders. Alarms, they were called. To take such a risk at drawing attention to him would quite obviously defy the reason of using a notice-me-not spell.

So, he waited until he spotted a young couple walking to the entry. They did not seem to take notice of the glass in front of them, and steadily walked towards it.

Just when Lucius was preparing himself for the loud bang that was surely to follow – right of the strongest, indeed – the doors separated and slid to the sides.

He carefully observed what happened, but did not hurry to follow after the Muggles. First he wanted to see how long it would take for the doors to close. He had absolutely no intention of getting stuck in a Muggle contraption. The doors closed again, although he could have easily passed though.

Five minutes later, and a conclusion the magic radiating from him must have somehow affected the system regulating the doors, Lucius quickly followed a fat, whale-like boy into the building.

Once inside he heaved a sigh of relief, which he scolded himself for. Then, he took in his surroundings.

Sharp, white lights hanging down from the ceiling made him look down and blink a few times. When his eyes had adjusted to the – he was sure damaging – light, he continued looking around.

Sparkling white tiles on the floor and walls reflected the bright light, making everything seem to glow. Rows, and rows of 'things' were stacked up on each other.

How was he ever going to find what he was looking for here? Not for the first time this day, Lucius reconsidered his mission. Was all this trouble really worth it? His sanity was at stake, yes, but he could live without, right? And after all, this was not a very positive influence on his sanity either.

If only that damned Potter boy had not made him loose his most valuable house elf, Dobby. Making him give a sock to an elf, what a pathetic plan. Unfortunately a pathetic, but successful plan.

"Gryffindor luck", Lucius muttered to himself, the sound getting lost in the shopping crowd. Although, if he was honest he would have admitted Potter's plan would not have succeeded had he been anyone else but Potter. The boy always made him distracted, loose his touch.

Maybe it was this 'unexpectedness' Potter always seemed to bring with him. Something Lucius himself was unfamiliar with in his life. Everything was planned, schemed, and people acted according it.

Potter, as every other Gryffindor, rushed ahead in things, not taking notice of his surroundings. He lived by the moment. On the other hand he had something other Gryffindors did not have.

When Potter found himself in a dangerous situation he always managed to manipulate the situation to his advantage. A typical Slytherin trait, had it not been for the fact Potter manipulated spontaneously, probably without even realising it.

Lucius was not so immature to separate all people into four different houses with four different character traits. However, he had expected the boy to play his part of Gryffindor Golden Boy.

He smirked slightly. Of course, the amount of power that was radiating from the boy was something Lucius noticed as well. A perfect example of survival of the strongest, although Potter should cease that 'saving-people' thing.

He shook his head slightly, breaking away from his thoughts. He had walked down the first row of Muggle products, and still had not found what he came for.

The next passage he wanted to walk through was blocked by the whale-sized boy who had caused the doors to open.

The boy, while furiously gesturing with his hands, slowly backed up another boy –at least, the messy black hair Lucius spotted from behind the whale made him think it was a boy.

Vaguely interested, Lucius paused his search to listen to the conversation they were having.

"… doing here outside? What if the neighbours see you? Ooh, wait until I have told mum and dad. I'll bet they won't feed you for a week!"

The boy – the voice confirmed his suspicion it was a boy – did not sound perturbed by the threat.

"It was your mummy in the first place who sent me for groceries, since she was too busy spying on the new neighbours."

His fascination for Potter was getting out of hand, Lucius thought. For he could easily replace the smaller boy for Potter, going by the hair and voice.

The huge boy continued his rant. "Like she would give any money to a freak."

"Believe what you want, Dudley. Go back to your friends." The other replied.

The whale, apparently named 'Dudley' turned to leave. "Yeah, maybe I'll just do that. And when we come back we can play a nice game of Harry Hunting."

Lucius, however, was not listening anymore. When Dudley moved away from his sight, he saw the purpose of his mission, his addiction, his craving.

"Honey", he said. Not noticing he did so out loud.

"Oh, shit", a voice said, "Malfoy?"

This shook Lucius out of his stupor. "Potter?!" he all but shouted. Damn, it had happened again. The Potter boy had somehow managed to surprise him.

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Name: HORKLUMP  
Description: It looks like a pink mushroom with black bristles. It is widespread throughout northern Europe. It will cover an average sized garden in about 2 or 3 days. It spreads its tentacles around the garden looking for food. Its a Gnomes favourite, and apart from that it has no use.  
M.O.M Classification: X

Name: FLOBBERWORM  
Description: Lives in damp moistly ditches. It's a large worm that can grow up to ten inches. It prefers lettuce out of all the vegetation it eats.  
M.O.M Classification: X


End file.
